Shake it off!

[Lieve Averesch]

He still didn't feel him anywhere nearby and that worried him. Were they lied to? Did Cori ever really escape or was he still stuck in the grasp of some evil ex-boyfriend? Was the ex even a thing? Or was it just Rip? Maybe he was one of those people who switched personalities. Lieve still shouted for Cori in every room he peered into, not seeing anything, not hearing anything, not sensing anything.

And then... His name. He heard it and some kind of scuffle. With his heart in his throat, he started for Cori's room but he was met in the hallway by Cori himself, throwing himself at Lieve and hanging on tight. Lieve hung on tight, too. It was still strange that he couldn't feel his signature but he was there and he was solid and very much in his arms.

"Cori! I was worried sick!" He held Cori back at arm's length to look him over. And yes, he did look ridiculous, dressed in layers and with the one mitten. But he was alive and well! Lieve didn't see any signs of abuse on him, no bruises, no wounds. He pulled Cori into a hug again.

"What happened? I tried to trace you but I couldn't find you! Your signature--it's just... it disappeared! What did they do to you?"

[Cori Viera]

Cori... had been through some stuff. He knew he was probably a mess, hair in his face and eyes, sweating up a storm in his long coat and with the mitten still attached to one hand. The sunglasses he wore earlier had come off in the mad dash from Greenwood to home. "Lieve! I-I don't know! I went to the shelter to get out of the rain cause you told me to come home and I was coming home and..."

He stopped to take a breath, hugging Lieve as tightly as Lieve held him. "And Mik left me in the back room so I took a nap, and then some blond guy walked in and did something weird. I couldn't move Lieve! He had some kind of invisible magic rope around me! He took me to Greenwood and he was saying all this crazy stuff about my dad being happy he had me..."

Again he had to pause to take a breath. Cori paused for a moment; he buried his face into the crook of Lieve's neck. "Then another guy with black hair came in and... I don't know what happened after that. I think I passed out. When I came back to, there was this guy called Rip there and he helped me get rid of the curse! Oh! Lieve! I'm not cursed anymore! I mean I kinda am, I'm not making plants die but... but now they grow like crazy! Anyway Rip helped me escape and he told me to imagine this cloak around me, covering me, and... yeah. I ran home as fast as I could. Where were you? Where did you go?"

[Lieve Averesch]

Huh? His dad? As long as Lieve knew Cori, he didn't have a dad. His dad wanted him? That wasn't falling in line with Rip's account of things, he made it sound like this abusive boyfriend person had kidnapped Cori in order to gain Rip's attention. But now Cori was saying it had something to do with his father. Lieve frowned, really disliking where all of this was going.

And who was this other guy? Black hair... Was it the one that gave Mik a heart attack? How many people were involved in this thug ring? He was so in a gang or some kind of organized crime unit! And they... were connected to Cori, somehow... His father....?

"How did he help you get rid of the curse?" Lieve asked, because he suspected now that Rip gave him the curse. He must be some terrible witch! And organized witch crime groups were some of the most dangerous out there. Just look what happened to Cori!

"What do you mean? You make plants grow like crazy? Like a dryad? Like me? And what do you mean he told you to imagine a..." Lieve took a step back and really looked at Cori. He couldn't see it, of course. But he could feel the magic around Cori. "...you cloaked yourself..."

[Cori Viera]

Cori wasn't coming to terms with any of what he'd just said. He sort of vomited a pile of words at Lieve's feet in the hopes that Lieve would be able to figure it all out, because... yeah, he was stumped. But oh man, it was so good to be back home with Lieve again! Cori's heart was a lot lighter knowing that Lieve was here now. Having that familiar face with him was more reassuring than anything in the world.

"He said to imagine there's ink on my hands, and to just push it off! So I did, and I tested it out on a plant because Rip touched me after and he wasn't dead. And the plant I touched, it just... wouldn't stop growing! It filled a whole room Lieve!" Cori was still pretty shellshocked about that... Now he didn't know if he could ever see plants the same way again!

"Oh—yeah. Rip told me to run away and to imagine that cloak around me. He was really nice to me, Lieve. But he's stuck back there! He's being held hostage by those weird guys! We have to help him get out!"

[Lieve Averesch]

Lieve didn't mean to ignore Cori's questions about where he'd been but... at the moment there were far more important things to talk about. Besides, he'd only been out looking for Cori. And here he was. His heart soared because he did come home. Ah, he couldn't be more relieved. He gave Cori another tight hug, because he couldn't believe how close he had come to losing him and how that made him feel. Like the whole world swooped out from under him.

Gross. Rip touched him? Lieve frowned. He wanted more details on that but Cori still seemed in shock as he continued onward, words running over one another, some of them making sense, some of them sounding like the ramblings of a crazy person.

But it was sounding to Lieve an awful lot like Rip had something to do with the curse on Cori. And Lieve was even more suspicious because...

"He's not being held hostage by anyone, Cori," Lieve said gently. "He's been talking to Mik."

That fucking creep. Lieve, who hardly ever got angry, was downright pissed at this guy!

[Cori Viera]

"Ohh what? He's been talking to Mik? Then maybe he got out too! There was this barrier over the door and I broke it... Maybe Rip got out after me! He said he didn't have a phone though, so I guess I can't call him to make sure he's okay. I lost my phone too..."

Cori sighed. He just wanted to stay in Lieve's arms forever and feel safe and protected and home. Ever since his mom disappeared, Lieve was the one he turned to increasingly for reassurance. Lieve was kind enough to invite him into his home, to look after him, to worry about him when nobody else did. Mik briefly offered to let him stay with him and his Aunt Shelby, but... truthfully, Cori much preferred being with Lieve. He was good friends with Mik but he was best friends with Lieve.

"I'm never leaving the house again, Lieve... Also I'm not touching any plants!"

[Lieve Averesch]

"What?! He was talking to him on the phone!" Lieve wanted to tear out his hair. What was happening here?! But then he remembered the texts he'd scrolled through and when Mik asked where he was, he'd said the phone store. Maybe Lieve was jumping to conclusions--maybe he didn't have the full story. But there was a lot of fishy shit happening right now!

Ooooh! He had to meet this guy himself eventually. To make his own call about him. But so far? It was not looking good from where Lieve was standing!

"Oh, don't say that, love," Lieve said, stroking Cori's back as he embraced him again. "Poor thing. You went through a lot today... You don't have to go anywhere for a while, all right? But don't become a shut-in. And for now, it might be safer if you stayed away from... plants..."

Lieve's home was sort of maybe a little covered in them, though. He eyed the hallway they were currently standing in. There weren't any in the hall--no light, no windows.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up and we'll find something to eat. You're looking a little pale."

[Cori Viera]

"No!" Cori put hands to his face, shocked. "But he said he didn't have a phone! Maybe he found mine! Or he bought one to-to call the cops on our kidnappers!" Well that had to be the case because why on Earth would Rip lie to him? If he had a phone, there was no need to run around in secrecy helping Cori escape using magic. Which he still doubted he had.

"I'm not going to become a shut-in but... it's not looking all that safe out there lately, Lieve," he sighed as he leaned into the hug, and then followed Lieve down the hall. Luckily, no plants anywhere near him. Good! He couldn't bear to see another plant explode in growth on him, he might just freak out and chop off his own hands! But also—there wasn't a scary tall guy around to make the plant stop growing...

"Lieve..." Cori looked down at his hand, the one without the mitten encasing it. "Do you think I have magic? Because you know, mom doesn't. And... I never knew my dad and she never said anything about him." She only said that he was a soldier and had died in the war. Cori always thought that his dad was a brave man who died serving his country—a hero. It had been him and his mom all his life, and he didn't exactly miss what he never had, but he did wonder often—especially when he was a kid, and other kids teased him for not having a dad. Like it was his fault!

"Maybe he's a plant guy like you..."

[Lieve Averesch]

Lieve half smiled at Cori's shock. "He did. He bought one at the store, I think."

There was no point in making Cori freak out about it. Lieve didn't want to scare Cori more than he was already scared off by everything that just happened to him. It was probably going to be like pulling teeth just to get him outside. But that didn't need to happen right now. Cori needed time. Time to relax and calm down. And Lieve had all kinds of magical feel-good powders to add to bathwater to make Cori do just that.

Flipping on the light switch in the bathroom, he saw that he had a couple of plants in the window. He let go of Cori to pick them up and remove them from the bathroom. The explosion of growth sounded like a good thing--it was just too much power. They could address that later, though. For now, there was no point in making Cori paranoid that he was going to brush up against a plant. What a turn of events... Cori used to be his number one right hand man when it came to caring for the nursery.

"Oh, you definitely have magic," Lieve said once he came back. He sat on the edge of the tub and turned on the water, putting his hand underneath it to monitor the temperature. "I'm not sure if it's like mine, though. Dryads have a sort of... well, to be honest, the same sort of feeling you get when you sit under a tree or touch a flower. Lots of different kinds of energies. Yours is... it's always been warm and light."

As the water filled the tub, he went to the rack on the wall and began choosing various bottles and jars of powders.

"I can't feel it now, but that's because you're cloaked. And you're the one who did that, you said it yourself."

[Cori Viera]

Ahh! That made sense! Cori was reassured. Rip definitely didn't seem like he wanted to be one of the gang back there, plus Cori got the feeling that he was stuck there because they had something over him. Why else would Rip refuse to leave with him when they both had a chance? In the back of his mind he still fretted over Rip, however; he hoped that Rip was on his way to safety now.

For the moment, a bath sounded heavenly. Cori squeezed right up against the wall when Lieve carried the small pots out; he looked at the tiny pretty leaves like they were buzzsaws coming at him, with horror in his eyes. Imagine a house buried under a whole mass of those! Exploding out the windows! Erupting out of the top of the chimney! Chilling.

"How come I've never had magic until now? And why was it so bad? I don't want magic if it kills stuff." He eyed the place where the plant pots used to sit. "Or if it explodes stuff. But the cloak thing seems useful... I did put it on. I don't know how though! Rip told me to imagine it and I did, but I didn't feel anything." Since the bath water was nearly ready and Lieve was adding colorful scented salts and powders, Cori began to undress. He took off the coat, hung it up on the hook behind the door. Took off the mitten, removed his long-sleeved shirt and pants, folded them up and set them onto the lid of the toilet.

"Should I take it off now?" He meant the cloak, but his hand was currently on the waistband of his underwear.

[Lieve Averesch]

"That... I can't say..." Lieve didn't even know what Cori was. A witch, perhaps. Some came into their magic during puberty. Cori was past that but he could be a late bloomer. He didn't seem to be a dryad despite his magic with the plant. That was probably just because he'd touched a plant. Lieve wondered what would have happened if he touched something else. He must have touched things getting home. The doorknob, for example.

"But cloaking yourself like that... sounds like fairy magic, so you're probably a fairy. Not like me, but a kind of fairy. There's so many, though..."

And he'd imagined the cloak and it was there. That was powerful magic. No potions, no ingredients, no incantations, no hand gestures. A powerful fairy. Lieve looked up, about to say he must be royalty, whatever he was, when he found himself staring at a mostly unclothed Cori, with nothing but his underwear on, getting ready to remove them.

"Oh!" Why did it make his face burn? He wasn't a blushing virgin or anything! And he knew Cori wasn't saying it to flirt with him! ...Was he? No! Of course not! "Well, you're not going to bathe with them on, are you...?"

He kept his gaze UP though. Cori wasn't shy. Lieve wasn't... shy, as such, either. But still. They were young and he didn't know about Cori but his hormones were wild and liked to spring up on him at inappropriate times.

[Cori Viera]

"Me? A fairy?!" Wow! That was inconceivable. Fairies were... The only example he had of a fairy in real life was Lieve, so he imagined that they must all be quite tall and slim and graceful. Stately. Knowledgeable, definitely. Handsome? Pretty. Overall good-looking and unique, but in a way that was self-assured and didn't come off as trying too hard to stand out. Basically—very beautiful people with magic fingers.

While he laughed disbelievingly, Lieve's face seemed to have gotten redder. Was it because he'd been bent over the tub, shaking powers and salts into the water? Maybe he stood up too fast? Cori blinked at him. He seemed flustered, but why would he be over an innocent question about an invisible cloak?!

"Would... it... be bad to take a bath with the cloak on?" He asked, mystified, as he dropped the boxers. Undressing before Lieve didn't seem scandalous to him; they used to get baths together when they were little and came over to each other's houses for sleepovers. Recently, of course, they didn't routinely get naked together but he still didn't think anything lewd of it.

[Lieve Averesch]

What?

"The... ahem... the cloak?"

Oh. He meant the cloak. Lieve still didn't look down once Cori's underwear were ditched. No big deal. Just... standing around in the bathroom with a naked Cori. Sure, they used to bathe naked all the time... when they were kids. Before they hit puberty. Afterward, it just... didn't seem right. And now... Now they just... didn't.

"The water won't hurt the cloak," he said with amusement, despite the awkwardness of the moment. He moved aside so that Cori could get into the bath he'd prepared for him. The water should be perfect for recovery, he'd put his best into the water and it was a soothing temperature.

"I think you should keep it on for now, otherwise you might end up tracked by the wrong people."

[Cori Viera]

When they were kids, they did everything together. In a small town like Hazleton there wasn't much outside influence, like TV or social media or even video games aside from the old arcade. They did the usual things—climb all the trees, swim in all the lakes and swimming holes, go to all the bonfires, hang out at the ridge to stargaze. At the time Cori didn't treasure those moments because he was a kid. It was only after he grew older and he and Lieve stopped hanging out so much that he began to miss those simpler times.

After puberty hit, Lieve started going out with other people. Guys. And Cori just kind of silently supported him from the sidelines, without knowing quite how to express that weird... funny little ache inside every time he heard about one of Lieve's new boyfriends. It wasn't envy or anything; he was genuinely happy for Lieve if they were nice guys and usually, they were. He didn't think it was a big deal so he didn't say anything to anyone. After a while, he learned to ignore it.

They didn't drift apart as such but admittedly their lives had begun to part ways. Then, after Cori's mom disappeared, they came back together because Cori moved in with Lieve and looking for his mom gave them both a common purpose. Cori started leaning on Lieve again, just like he used to when he was smaller. And now he really needed Lieve more than ever, with his magical powers manifesting.

He got into the tub and sighed as soon as his legs hit the water. It was just the right temperature—Lieve knew he liked it a little on the hotter side. Not scalding! But warmer than lukewarm. Cori sank into the bath and uttered a happy sound as the water embraced him. Felt like a mother's hug. "If they can't track me... you can't either though, right?" He reached out over the side of the tub and latched onto Lieve's hand, looking up at him worriedly. "That means we can't go far from each other!"

[Lieve Averesch]

Oh, puberty. What it did to a person. Lieve explored his sexuality, kissing girls and finding he wasn't that fond of them. His crushes turned out to be on boys. Some of them really wanted nothing to do with Lieve. Some rebuffed him. But Lieve was Lieve. He'd had... his share of boyfriends over time. Lots of flings. He just wanted to enjoy his youth.

However... just like it had gone down with Gil, Lieve didn't seem to keep a boyfriend for long. Most of the time, separation was amicable but Lieve had a handful of assholes exes, too. He'd been burned a few times. He had a few moments where he swore guys off forever, only to find himself looking at a new guy's ass.

And then there was Cori. They were best friends. BFFs. Biffles. They did kind of orbit different groups in high school  but... then Cori's mom... And here they were, close like they never had those handful of years of hanging out with other people.

After Cori's mom disappeared, it was like Cori needed Lieve more and more. Like right now, when he took his hand, like he was afraid that if he lost sight of Lieve, something was going to happen to one of them. Lieve gave Cori's hand a gentle squeeze.

"I was just going to sit on the toilet, here." To be honest, he was shaken up by Cori's disappearance, too. Especially after what happened to Cori's mother. And all the shit surrounding it only made him more on edge. He just didn't want to scare Cori with all of the details or his thoughts on the matter. He was trying to relax him, not send him to the edge.

"But yeah, I can't track you, either, so if you do go anywhere, you better tell me or you'll give me a heart attack!"